I've recently upgraded my PC's hardware, swapping out my RTX 3060 for a new RTX 5070 and also upgrading my CPU from an i9-12900K to an i9-14900K. My main goal was to enhance performance in Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020, but I was shocked to find that my gaming performance has actually declined since the upgrade. I'm averaging about 15 FPS lower than I used to get, and in some cases, it's dropped by as much as 40 FPS.
I've gone through a series of troubleshooting steps, including a clean install of Windows 11, checking component compatibilities, and ensuring I didn't overlook any settings like hardware acceleration or Windows game mode. My specs are quite robust, with a solid CPU cooler and fast RAM, yet I'm confused as to why the new hardware doesn't just blow my old setup out of the water.
I'm looking for insights into:
- What could cause newer hardware to perform worse than older components?
- How can I ensure there are no underlying hardware or driver issues leading to this performance drop?
- Are there others with similar specs who could share their frame rate experiences with MSFS?
3 Answers
Make sure you've got the Nvidia app installed and disable automatic tuning and overlays. Also, consider turning on hardware acceleration; it's generally recommended unless you're facing specific issues with it in MSFS. And don't forget to ensure your BIOS has features like Resizable BAR enabled to maximize GPU performance. If your Fire Strike tests are crashing, this indicates there might be a fundamental driver issue at play here.
This might be a scheduling issue with your CPU. You mentioned the main load is jumping around cores, which could mean the new CPU isn't optimizing as well as your old one. Have you checked if your load is using the efficient cores instead of the performance ones? It might be worth monitoring that closely since Flight Simulator can be heavily reliant on single-core performance.
It looks like it's primarily utilizing the P-cores, but there's some jumping between threads. It's strange; my old CPU didn’t do that at all.
It’s important to note that your motherboard only supports PCIe Gen 4. Since the RTX 5070 is a Gen 5x16 card, it could be running under its potential, which might explain the performance dips in bandwidth-heavy applications like Flight Simulator. Check to make sure Resizable BAR is enabled in your BIOS, and try some less demanding games to see if performance improves.
I double-checked, and Resizable BAR is activated, and the GPU is correctly installed in the Gen 4 slot. If performance doesn’t improve, a new motherboard might be next on my list.
I can see where you're coming from. I've heard mixed things about hardware acceleration for MSFS. Some say it's crucial, while others suggest turning it off. What's your take, especially after a fresh Windows 11 install?